I’m writing this in the van, en route to Eugene from Spokane, an honorary member of Swatkins’s Positive Agenda for the week. This tour with the Huntertones is fun in that nourishing way beleaguered touring pros often forget we need.

Lots of musicians read this newsletter, and we all relate to that slogging-through-the-mud feeling of goddammit, another garbage contract to renegotiate, unforeseen delay to improvise around and high-maintenance so-and-so requiring prioritized attention lest the tour implode into a fiery heap of underachievement. It’s easy losing the forest for the trees. For me, it invariably comes back to one thing: make music with your friends. It’s really that simple, if you allow it to be. Form a band with your pals, play through shitty gear, turn it up really loud and make each other smile. Book a show at a dive, sweat through your clothes and get drunk on well whiskey. Get in a van with said pals, play a show at a neighboring town’s dive and try not to dwell on how many insects lost their lives on your windshield. Repeat until your soul’s crooning to the universe.

I know you’re skeptical, but I swear it’s that simple. Make music with your friends.